Friday, September 19, 2014

Reflections upon having taken on Greenpeace and other lesser
FSC old-growth logging apologists over their greenwash of old-growth
forest logging and winning, and why 66% is the next 350.

“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

“All we ever wanted was for the good-guys Greenpeace and FSC to stop logging old-growth forests.” ― Dr. Glen Barry

Greenpeace does many things well, such as photogenic posing with
celebrities and pithy slogans on banners. But this does not include
admitting error or treating critics with dignity and respect. For the
past decade my small organization EcoInternet has alerted the world to
the fact that Greenpeace founded and for years directed the Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) – an organization that promotes industrially
logging Earth’s last large old-growth forests – and spearheaded a global
campaign to get them to stop. After years of stonewalling, turned
slowing to embracing our policies, this week they promised to stop
logging intact forest landscapes, potentially a substantial victory for
the real forest movement.

After tens of thousands of people around the world have over the
years protested NGO involvement in FSC old-growth logging, we have
successfully pressured Greenpeace and FSC into taking the first step and
admitting they have a problem. After twenty years of gorging themselves
upon logging old-growth forests – by our measure destroying an area two
times the size of Texas for consumer products such as toilet paper and
lawn furniture – all while accepting money for forest protection (gotta
admit they have chutzpah); this past Friday Greenpeace and FSC made
vague promises at FSC’s general assembly to stop logging old-growth
forests.

After years of ridicule and contempt directed at their critics, FSC
and Greenpeace did exactly what we have demanded (without admitting to
having done wrong) and pledged to someday really soon stop logging
old-growth rich intact forest landscapes. Gandhi was oh so right on how
crazy ideas – like forest protectors shouldn’t log old-growth –
eventually, after much disparagement, end up becoming self-evident
truths that can’t be denied.